Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced a bill on Wednesday that would require states who ditch their busted Obamacare exchanges and join the federal HealthCare.gov to pay back the money they wasted.
The bill, known as the State Exchange Accountability Act, would make states repay 10% of the federal grant money they received each year for a period of 10 years.
“Hard-working American taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for what has already turned into an almost $550 million dollar boondoggle,” said Hatch in a statement.
“Enough is enough,” said Barrasso in a statement. “States that scrap their state-run Obamacare exchanges are admitting they’ve wasted millions of dollars in federal grants. It’s only fair that states have to pay American taxpayers and the federal government back for their total incompetence.”
Joining Hatch and Barrasso as co-sponsors are Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Mike Enzi (R-WY), and John McCain (R-AZ).
Fourteen states presently run their own Obamacare exchanges. Oregon, Maryland, Hawaii, Nevada, and Massachusetts have all experienced disastrous problems with their exchanges that have caused state officials to consider scrapping their state exchanges to join the federal HealthCare.gov exchange.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay twice for the mistakes of incompetent state bureaucrats who couldn’t set up a working health care exchange,” said Barrasso.